An airplane starts at rest on a runway. It accelerates at 4.44ms2, and travels 738 m before taking off. How long did it take?

2 Answers
Jan 28, 2018

Reverse-engineer, using calculus, the definition of acceleration (then velocity) to solve for displacement as a function of time, then equate that to the given displacement to solve for time, yielding

t=304551111s18.23272970326803s18.2s

Explanation:

Let's see what we have:

a=4.44ms2

s=738m

And we're trying to find the time it took for an object to travel 738m with a constant acceleration of 4.44ms2 starting from rest.

Here's a tactic we can try: since acceleration relates to both time and displacement, we could pretend to be solving for displacement from acceleration, which will yield a function of time, then equate our displacement function with the given displacement, to solve for time.

To solve for displacement from acceleration, we could first solve for velocity from acceleration. In fact, we can do this by looking at the calculus definition of acceleration:

a=dvdt

Integrating both sides to solve for velocity:

adt=dvdtdt

adt=v

Let's plug in our acceleration:

v=(4.44ms2)dt

Pull the scalar out:

v=4.44ms2(1)dt

And solve:

v=4.44ms2(t+C)

The constant of integration (C) in this context refers to the starting velocity, but since the starting velocity is zero (because the object starts at rest), we can ignore the constant:

v=4.44tms2

Don't worry about the units, as the time variable will have a unit s, canceling out with ms2, becoming ms.

Now that we have velocity, we could use the definition of velocity, which relates to displacement:

v=dsdt

Take the integral with respect to time:

vdt=dsdtdt

vdt=s

And solve for displacement, plugging in the value for velocity that we have solved earlier:

s=(4.44tms2)dt

Taking out the scalar once again:

s=4.44ms2(t)dt

And solving:

s=4.44ms2(t22+C)

Again, the constant of integration doesn't matter here:

s=2.22t2ms2

Now, we can equate this with the given displacement:

2.22t2ms2=738m

We might be able to divide by 2.22ms2:

2.22t2ms22.22ms2=738m2.22ms2

Simplifying:

t2=738m12.22ms2

t2=738m12.22s2m

t2=73812.22s2

t2=7381222100s2

t2=738111150s2

t2=73850111s2

t2=73850111s2

t2=36900111s2

Taking the square root:

t2=36900111s2

t=36900111s

And simplifying further:

t=36900111s

t=411009111s

t=90041111s

t=3041111s

t=3041111111111s

t=3041111111s

t=304551111s

Plugging that into a calculator, we get approximately...

30455111118.23272970326803

Therefore, the time it takes for an object with a constant acceleration of 4.44ms2 to be displaced 738m starting at rest is

t=304551111s18.23272970326803s18.2s

Jan 28, 2018

The time is =7.32s

Explanation:

A very simple way of tackling this problem.

Apply the equation of motion

s=ut+12at2

The initial velocity is u=0ms1

The acceleration is a=4.44ms2

The distance is s=738m

Therefore,

738=0×t+12×4.44×t2

t2=27384.44

t=27384.44=18.2s